Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Twilio.org Impact Corps?

The Twilio.org Impact Corps is a community of Twilio employees and Twilio developers who are here to help social impact organizations best leverage Twilio communications technology. If you are a nonprofit, NGO, b-corporation, or social enterprise, our volunteers are here to help you out.

Who is eligible to work with volunteers through the Impact Corps?

Nonprofits and social impact organizations that have joined the Twilio.org Impact Access program can join the Impact Corps portal and reach out to volunteer developers.

What types of projects can I get help with?

Impact organizations should use Impact Corps volunteers to have an hour initial call to get help on a challenge or get help with Twilio. Engagements that continue beyond that should have clear expectations for both the organization and the developer. A few helpful things to keep in mind:

A good match. Ensure that you and the volunteer are a good match for each other. A good match means that the volunteer has the technical skills and time availability to help address the challenge or question at hand. Be sure to ask about this in your initial communication and conversation to ensure a great experience for you both.

Use Twilio. Organizations can have many different types of technology that make them run efficiently. Ensure that your questions revolve around implementing Twilio technology. If an integration with another platform is required, be sure to ask your volunteer about that from the outset.

Scope it. Should your challenge or question go beyond the initial advisory call, ensure that you and your volunteer have properly scoped the work. This ensures you both know the work that needs to be done. Set up regular check-ins, develop a timeline and project plan, and be clear on desired outcomes for your organization.

When I reach out to my volunteer, what information should I provide?

To make the most of your initial advisory call, share as much information as possible about your challenge or question. Think about including this information:

Name and mission of your organization

What is your timeline?

What type of communications are you trying to achieve?

Do you have an existing application with Twilio that you want to enhance, or are you working on a new project?

If you have an existing Twilio app, include the link to any code you can.

Do you have a required coding language or platform? Other requirements?

Will this project integrate with other systems or software?

Do you have a developer on staff?

How do I find the Impact Corps volunteer that’s best for me?

Impact Corps members each have their own area of expertise. We recommend using the keyword search terms. You can also compare volunteers by their profiles.

Who are the Impact Corps volunteers?

Impact Corps volunteers are Twilio employees and members of our 1.6M developer community who have been invited to the platform. Each volunteer has been trained on how to answer your questions and/or route you to the best person.

I’m not a developer, what should I ask during our conversation?

Impact Corps volunteers are trained to work backwards from your needs and goals to identify the best way to address them. Don't stress too much if you're not a tech person - try to focus on the problems you want to solve without worrying about prescribing a technical solution.

Some questions you may want to ask to help guide your conversation:

Are there organizations similar to mine that are using Twilio? How are they using it?

For any proposed solution: what are the maintenance requirements over the long term? What do I do if I need support?

What are some of the most innovative communications use cases you've seen in the field?

What should I expect once I select my volunteer?

You can expect a response from your volunteer within 3 business days. Your advisory session can happen in person or via video or phone. The Impact Corps volunteer will work with you to understand your organization’s needs and discover how they can help. If your needs are limited to architecture guidance or troubleshooting, this conversation may be all that’s needed. If your organization needs to deploy a more sophisticated communications solution, your volunteer can help define next steps for working with software, open source tools, or professional developers that can help. In some cases, if the need is relatively basic, your volunteer may be able to help you build a small application that meets your needs. Any follow-up actions or conversations after the advisory session should be mutually agreed upon by you and the volunteer.

What is the Twilio.org Impact Corps?

The Twilio.org Impact Corps is a community of Twilio employees and Twilio developers who are here to help social impact organizations best leverage Twilio communications technology. As a member of the Impact Corps you get to use your Twilio knowledge to help organizations reduce the friction they have in communicating with the communities they serve.

What do I get out being a member of the Impact Corps?

The Impact Corps is your chance to give back. Whether you have 1 hour or 10 hours a month, you get the opportunity to use your skills to have rewarding conversations with organizations and to have an impact on their larger communications strategy. You’d be amazed at how your knowledge and business skills can truly impact an organization. Other benefits include: meeting other volunteers, count these hours towards your company’s dollars for doers program (if applicable), and learn about organizations you may not have encountered otherwise.

Why does Impact Corps exist?

Twilio.org launched the Impact Corps in the fall of 2017 to aid our customers expand their impact through the Twilio platform. Whether that was getting started at understanding what Twilio is and its capabilities, or how to add SMS into their current tech setup, we wanted a scalable way to help as many social impact organizations as possible. Additionally, we saw high engagement from employees when they were able to advise social impact organizations and wanted to offer them a way to give back to our community. But we didn’t just want our employees to get involved, one of the best assets Twilio.org can provide our customers is our developer community. They have incredible knowledge of the Twilio platform and wanted a way to bring that community together for the betterment of social impact organizations. We feel this program enables organizations, community members, and employees to uphold two of our nine Twilio values “Empower Others” and “Create Experiences”.

I’m ready. How do I become an Impact Corps volunteer?

Great! We’ll need a few things from you before getting started.

You should have practical experience working on Twilio projects as a developer, manager, or other key contributor

When you’re all set, please fill out the contact us contact us form and someone from the Twilio.org team will be in touch shortly. We will reach out about a training sessions and the required materials you’ll need to review.

What can I expect from an Impact Corps engagement?

With over 1,200 social impact organizations building on Twilio, that means we have a variety of organizations using our technology.

As a volunteer, your aim should be to deliver a top notch experience to our customers. We want organizations to walk away from this experience with their question answered and recommending this engagement to others. Here are a few examples of engagements we’ve had with customers.

An international NGO has a data set that it wants to turn into an IVR for work in Zambia. We connected a Twilio employee developer with the organization to scope the project and determine the timeline.

A nonprofit who is the financial health space came to us thinking that they needed a developer. However, after an hour long advisory call, their challenge was solved. They simply needed someone to walk their developers through Twilio implementation and architecture.

A five person nonprofit was looking to implement an SMS solution into their current tech stack. However they lacked a developer. One of our Impact Corps members spent three 1 hour sessions with them. The first call was to clearly understand their challenge, technical capacity, timeline and budget. The volunteer then did some investigating into what partner solutions might be relevant for them. They re-convened and the Impact Corps member shared two solutions with them that would be appropriate. She connected them with the partner and the organization was able to implement SMS support.